Living Catholicism: Good Friday Reflection

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April 14, 2006

Good Friday Reflection

So now we have come to the cross...

The following is a reflection from The Imitation of Christ:

On The Fewness Of Those Who Love The Cross Of Jesus

Jesus today has many who love his heavenly kingdom, but few who carry his cross; many who yearn for comfort, few who long for distress. Plenty of people he finds to share his banquet, few to share his fast. Everyone desires to take part in his rejoicing, but few are willing to suffer anything for his sake. There are many that follow Jesus as far as the breaking of bread, few as far as drinking the cup of suffering; many that revere his miracles, few that follow him in the indignity of his cross; many that love Jesus as long as nothing runs counter to them; many that praise and bless him, as long as they receive some comfort from him; but should Jesus hide from them and leave them for a while, they fall to complaining or become deeply depressed.
2. Those who love Jesus for his own sake, not for the sake of their own comfort, bless him in time of trouble and heartache as much as when they are full of consolation; and should it never be his will to grant them any comfort, they would still always praise him, always long to thank him.
3. To love Jesus purely, with no alloy of self-interest and self-love, is a source of great power. Mercenaries - isn't that the proper name for those who are always looking for comfort? Those who are always thinking of their own profit and advantage are shewn up as lovers of themselves rather than of Christ. Where will you find a man willing to serve God without hope of reward?
4. Rarely will you find anyone so spiritual as to be stripped bare of all things. Who will show me a man truly poor in spirit, completely severed from all things created? Such a one is a rare treasure, brought from distant shores (Proverbs 31:10). If a man were to give away everything he had, it would still be but little; if he were to have a grasp of all knowledge, he would still be a long way off. Even if he had great holiness and fervent devotion, there would still be much lacking to him; that one thing, I mean, which he needs above all else. And what is this one thing? That, having left all things behind, he should leave himself, renounce himself completely, keeping back nothing of his self-love; and when he has done everything that he knows he ought to do, let him realize that he has done nothing.
5. It is not for him to reckon as a great achievement what might seem so in other men's eyes; no, he should admit the truth, admit that he is a worthless servant. It is Truth himself who tells us: When you have done all that was commanded you, you are to say, We are servants, and worthless (Lk 17:10). Then indeed will he be able to be naked and poor in spirit, saying along with the prophet: You see me friendless and forlorn (Psalms 24 [25]:16). For all that, there is never a man richer, none with greater power, greater freedom, than he who knows how to renounce himself and all besides, setting himself in the lowest place of all.

On The Royal Road Of The Holy Cross

"Renounce yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus." There are many to whom that seems a hard saying: but how much harder will it be to hear that word of final judgement: Go far from me, you that are accursed, into eternal fire (Mt 25:41). Those who now gladly hear the word of the cross and keep what it commands will not be afraid then when they hear the doom of everylasting loss. It is this sign of the cross that will appear in the sky when the Lord comes to judge us. Then all the servants of the cross, who during their lifetime made the Crucified the pattern of their deeds, will come with great confidence before Christ who is to judge them.
2. Why, then, are you afraid to take up your cross? It is your road to the kingdom of Christ. In the cross lies our salvation, our life; in the cross we have a defence against our foes. In the cross is the peak of virtue, the perfection of holiness. There is no salvation for our souls, no hope of life everlasting, but in the cross. Take up your cross, then, and follow Jesus; and you will go into life that has no end. He has gone ahead of you, bearing his own cross; on that cross he had died for you, that you may bear your own cross and on that cross yearn to die. If you have died together with him, together with him you will have life; if you have shared his suffering you will also share his glory.
3. You see, the cross is at the root of everything; everything is based upon our dying there. There is no other road to life, to true inward peace, but the road of the cross, of dying daily to self. Walk where you will, seek whatever you have a mind to; you will find no higher road above, no safer road below, that the road of the holy cross. You may make all your plans and arrangements in accordance with your own notions and desires; even so, you will always find you have some suffering to bear, whether you like it or not; you will always find the cross.
Either you will be conscious of bodily pain, or your soul will be inwardly in distress.
...10. Set out, then, as a good and faithful servant of Christ, to bear like a man the cross of your Lord, that cross to which he was nailed for love of you. Be prepared to endure much thwarting and many a difficulty in this life of sadness; because that's how things are going to be for you, wherever you are, that's how you're sure to find things, wherever you look for shelter from them.
...14. Make no mistake about it; the life you are to lead must be one of death-to-life. The more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live to God. No one is fit to grasp heavenly things unless he resigns himself to bearing affliction for Christ's sake. There is nothing more acceptable to God, nothing so conducive to your soul's health in this world, than willingly to suffer for Christ's sake.
...If any man has a mind to come my way, let him renounce self, and take up his cross, and follow me (Lk 9:23). So then, when we have made an end of reading and studying, this is the conclusion we should reach at last: that we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without many trials Acts 14:21.
- Book Two: Considerations inviting us to live an interior life, 11; 12:1-3,10,14,15